The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Lewis Recitation Hall

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Lewis Recitation Hall (three-quarter view), McDaniel College

Lewis Recitation Hall (front facade), McDaniel College

Institution Name: McDaniel College
Original/Historic Place Name: Lewis Recitation Hall
Location on Campus: South entrance, west side past President's house
Date(s) of Construction:

1914	original construction Anderson, Charles M.

Designer: Charles M. Anderson
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Beaux-Arts classicism (Glossary)
Significance: education, history
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: rock

Walls: brick

Roof: metal

Function:

1914-present (2006)	classrooms (including recitation hall and laboratories)
ca. 2004-present (2006)	academic department buildings (economics and business administration, communication, sociology)

Narrative:
Lewis Recitation Hall was the college's first large free-standing classroom building. Prior to 1914, all classes were held in a large complex of interconnected buildings centered by Old Main (the original college building built in 1866-1867). As the college student population grew, additional facilities were needed, and the recitation hall was designed to provide some small offices, many classrooms, and a third floor devoted to science laboratories (replacing a small laboratory building which had originally been designed as a gymnasium). The new building was named for the incumbent president, Thomas Hamilton Lewis (1852-1929), who had become president of the college in 1886 (after four years as the founding president of the Westminster Theological Seminary). Lewis, a graduate of the College in 1875, was a dominant force in the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church and a dynamic preacher and administrator. Upon assuming the college presidency, he successfully raised the necessary funds to erase the college's longstanding debt. His thirty-four year presidency was marked by significant growth in the student body, several major curricular revisions, establishment of a growing endowment fund, and the erection of about twenty buildings on the expanding campus. After his retirement in 1920, Lewis became President of the Baltimore Conference for another nine years. The Lewis name is one of the most significant in the College's 135 year history.

In 1966 an addition to the Lewis Recitation Hall was completed that provided more laboratory and classroom space for chemistry, biology, and mathematics. It was named Lewis Hall of Science. In 1999, another laboratory building was added to the complex (named Eaton Hall), and older buildings were completed renovated.

References:

Bulletin of the Historical Society of Carroll County, Maryland 2, no. 2 (May 1952).

Chandler, Douglas R. Pilgrimage of Faith; A Centennial History of Wesley Theological Seminary--1882-1982. Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks Press, 1984.

Makisky, John D. "Western Maryland College in the Nineteenth Century." Western Maryland College Bulletin [n.d.].

Schofield, Samuel Biggs, and Marjorie Cowles Crain. Western Maryland College The Formative Years, 1866-1947. Westminster, MD: Western Maryland College, 1982.

Weeks, Christopher. "The Building of Westminster in Maryland." Bulletin of the Historical Society of Carroll County, Maryland 2, no. 1 (May 1949).

Zepp, Ira G. "Western Maryland College: The Hill." In A Grateful Memory: History of Baker Chapel. Westminster, MD: Western Maryland College, 1995.